AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Remy!” She hisses. “Put me down!”
“I’m not having you faint on me. I’ll put you down when we get back on the boat.”
Her protests are drowned out by the howls of the animals as we walk back through the hallway and exit into the late afternoon. The sky is darker now, just like my mood, but I don’t care. We’re due for a storm, but I’m not watching her fawn over my brother another minute. I’ve got to get out of here before I kill Wes myself for being someone she’d give anything to. I don’t understand how she can after all that he nearly took from her, but I don’t think that’s what bothers me most. What I hate most is that she looks at him like a wounded puppy, like she can fix him.
Claire’s given up on fighting, swaying against me with every step until I carry her over the threshold of the boat and into the cabin. “You can put me down now.” She snaps, clearly annoyed with me.
But I’m more than annoyed. I’m furious with her.
I don’t put her down. I carry her past the fucking crime scene that my kitchen has become and to the small bedroom at the back. There’s a trail of blood leading to the bathroom, but I’m glad he at least had the decency to not ruin my mattress. Most everything else can be cleaned, though I may have to buy new cushions for the seats.
I throw Claire down onto the perfectly made bed with a little more force than necessary. “Stay.”
It’s all I can manage without losing my patience entirely, and I’d rather not do that with her. But Claire has tested me from the first moment I saw her. It took everything in me not to take her that night, not to throw her against that dresser and see just how innocent she really was. I held back because of my sister, because I wanted to keep her insulated from this sordid lifestyle that I inherited, but it took so much out of me to control myself. And I got good at controlling myself, made it look like it was something I did as a habit.
But Rhea knows everything, and Claire is fucking with my head, and I’m done playing nice.
“I’m not a dog.” Claire growls, sounding very much feral. There’s anger in her voice, but beneath it is a hint of delicious indignation.
I know better than to take the bait, but my brain doesn’t have any say as I spin back to face her. “Oh? Could have fooled me.”
She’s scrambled up from where I tossed her on her back to sitting on her knees, likely in an attempt to not look so vulnerable. Her eyes are angry, her energy matching mine. She wants to fight as much as I do. “Which means what?”
“Meaning you were fawning over my brother like a bitch in heat.” I sneer, relishing the way her eyes go wide at the insult.
“I wasn’t fawning over him!”
“Could have fooled me.” As much as I want the fight, I also want to put distance between us so that I can think without her occupying my every thought, breathe without her in every breath. My hand is on the doorknob, my mind made up to go, but she draws me back like a fish on a line. She’s got her hooks in me so deep she could gut me, and I’d ask her for more. Everything about her is trouble, and I need to put a definite end to anything and everything between us for her sake and mine. I don’t know what we have, but it’s toxic. I’ve never known anyone to bring these feelings out of me, to make me jealous by simply being in the presence of another man, to make me want to hurt her as much as I want to fuck her.
“If I’m a bitch in heat, what are you? You act like you’re too good for me, then pull me in just to push me away. You kiss me, and then you accuse me of murder. You fuck me, and then you practically beg for my attention. You kill with me and then tell me we’ll never amount to anything!" She's practically yelling, her chest heaving with her anger. "You tell me we only have one night, and you take every second of that night, and then you get jealous when I exist in the same room as your brother! This isn’t about me, Remy. It’s about you and your mommy issues.”
That comment sears into my skin, but I cover it with a laugh as I turn back to face her. “Mommy and daddy issues, Claire. Just like you.”
My rebuttal doesn’t bother her. She doesn’t even flinch, her cool stare burning through me. “So, we’re both fucked up.”
“You make me this way.” I argue. Maybe it’s not fair to put that on her, but I was doing just fine before she came along, mommy issues and all. “You bring it out of me.”
“So, take it out on me.”
She says it so calmly that she could be telling me to change the paint color on my walls. Despite the coolness of her words, her eyes are on fire, branding me with her gaze. I know what she’s suggesting, and my blood is already so hot from the rage filling it that I don’t stand a chance of telling her no. I close the space between us in a few short steps and pin her to the mattress with my hand on her neck. Her breath escapes her as she falls onto her back, staring up at me with those bright eyes. They don’t show a flicker of fear. She trusts me—craves my chaos, needs my anger. I don’t know what it says about us that we both get more from this depraved exchange than simple pleasure, but I don’t fucking care. I don’t care about anything right now.
“A bitch in heat needs a collar,” I tell her, stroking my thumb over the delicate column of her throat. I’m not squeezing, not applying any pressure. The suggestion is all I need right now. Claire’s eyes are blazing with desire, the heat between us approaching a flash point. We’re fire and gasoline, rage and chaos. All of our soft sides are gone—the pure, the genuine, the innocent. It’s all been stripped away by our passion, leaving only wicked desire in its wake. I’m drunk on the power she’s giving me, addicted to the rush brought on by her existence.
I want her to keep fighting me, but a moan slips out of her throat instead. And my cock constricts, along with everything inside of me. I think of ripping her shorts down to her ankles and filling her so fast that she screams at the intrusion. But she’s a flame, and I’m a moth. I’ll burn myself trying to get to her, so I just shake my head. The more I fuck her, the less I want to do anything else.
I move off of her, every part of me tense enough I’m surprised I don’t just shatter when she laughs. “That’s it?”
I pause, my knees still on either side of her hips. “What?”
“I didn’t take you for the kind to tap out.” She laughs, her breasts bouncing in her tank top.
“I’m not tapping out.”
“Are you scared of me Remy?”
No. I’m not scared of this little angelic girl with a dark side that she hasn’t even begun to explore the depths of. I am scared of what she does to me, what she brings out of me. When I don’t answer, she laughs again. “Pussy.”
It takes me a moment to register that she really just said that, and by that point, I don’t give a fuck about anything beyond this moment. I squeeze the sides of her neck, applying just enough pressure to remind her that she’s trying to pick a fight with a fucking killer. But Claire only arches off the bed, her hips searching for me. “So brave,” I whisper, licking my lips as my mind runs through all the different things that I could do to show her that she’s playing with fire. “So stupid.”
